SPRING 2017 #1779 VOLUME 114 NO. 2 $4 (U.S. IWW members) / $6 (U.S. non-members) / $7 (International) 2 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 IWW DIRECTORY IWW Contract Shops Queensland Secretary: Dave Pike, secretary@ Lithuania: lithuania.iww@gmail. gmail.com Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 77, California Brisbane GMB: P.O. Box 5842, West iww.org.uk com Kentucky Altamont, 12009. 518-861-5627. End, Qld 4101. Asger, del., hap- Southern England Organiser: Nikki Netherlands: [email protected] [email protected] San Francisco Bay Area GMB: Kentucky GMB: Mick Parsons, [email protected]. Dancey, [email protected] Norway IWW: 004793656014. Secretary Treasurer, papamick.iww@ Utica IWW: Brendan Maslauskas P.O. Box 11412, Berkeley, 94712. Dunn, del., 315-240-3149. 510-845-0540. [email protected]. Victoria Tech Committee: [email protected] [email protected]. http://www. gmail.com. 502-658-0299 Melbourne GMB: P.O. Box 145, Training Department: Chair - Chris iwwnorge.org, www.facebook.com/ Louisiana Ohio Contact for: Berkeley Ecology Center iwwnorge. Twitter: @IWWnorge (Curbside) Recycling - IU 670 IWW Moreland, VIC 3058. melbourne- Wellbrook, [email protected] Louisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, Northeast Ohio GMB: P.O. Box 1096, Shop; Community Conservation [email protected]. Treasurer: Jed Forward, treasurer@ United States del, [email protected]. https:// Cleveland, 44114. 440-941-0999 Centers (Buyback) Recycling – IU Canada iww.org.uk Alabama www.facebook.com/groups/iwwof- Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 6042, 670 – IWW Shop; Stone Mountain IWW Canadian Regional Organizing West of Scotland Organiser: Rona Mobile: Jimmy Broadhead, del., P.O. nwlouisiana/ Cincinnati 45206, 513- 510-1486, & Daughters fabrics - IU 410 IWW Committee (CANROC): c/o Toronto McAlpine, westscotland@iww. Box 160073, 36616. [email protected] Maine [email protected] Shop; Embarcadero Center Cinemas GMB, P.O. Box 45 Toronto P, Toronto org.uk Tuscaloosa: Gerald Lunn. 205-245- Maine IWW: 207-619-0842. maine@ Sweet Patches Screenprinting: - IU 630 IWW Shop ON, M5S 2S6. [email protected] Women’s Officer: Jen Fox, women@ 4622. [email protected] iww.org, www.southernmaineiww. [email protected] Oregon Alberta iww.org.uk Alaska org Oklahoma Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., Edmonton GMB: P.O. Box 4197, ERA Branches Fairbanks GMB: P. O. Box 80101, Maryland Oklahoma IWW: 539-664-6769. 97214. 503-893-2382, portland. T6E 4T2. [email protected], Clydeside GMB: clydeside@iww. 99708. Chris White, del., 907- Baltimore GMB: P.O. Box 33350, [email protected] [email protected], portlandiww.org. edmonton.iww.ca. org.uk 457-2543, [email protected]. 21218. [email protected] Oregon Contact for: Janus Youth Shelters. British Columbia Cymru/Wales GMB: caerdydd@ Facebook: IWW Fairbanks Massachusetts Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541- Washington Vancouver GMB: IWW Vancouver, iww.org.uk Arkansas Boston Area GMB: P.O. Box 391724, 743-5681. [email protected], www. Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142 c/o Spartacus Books, 3378 Findlay Edinburgh GMB: edinburgh@iww. Northwest Arkansas IWW: P.O. Box Cambridge, 02139. 617-863-7920, iwwlane.org Seattle, WA 98122-3934. 206-429- Street, V5N 4E7. contact@vancou- org.uk 4062, Fayetteville, 72702-4062.iww. [email protected], www. Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., 5285. [email protected]. veriww.com. www.vancouveriww. [email protected] com Tyne & Wear GMB: tyneandwear@ IWWBoston.org 97214. 503-231-5488, portland. Contact for: Central Co-op iww.org.uk [email protected], portlandiww.org Vancouver Island GMB: Box 297 St. California Western Mass. Public Service IU A, Nanaimo BC, V9R 5K9. iwwvi@ Bradford GMB: [email protected] Los Angeles GMB: P.O. Box 74344, 650 Branch: IWW, P.O. Box 1581, Pennsylvania IWW Shop Cards telus.net. Leeds GMB: IWW, Ebor Court, Cooper 90004. 323-374-3499. iwwgmbla@ Northampton, 01061 Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box Gate, Leeds. [email protected] gmail.com 5912,15210. 412-438-3499, bst@ Anarpsy-Mental Health Services – Manitoba Michigan pghiww.org Piraeus, Greece: [email protected] Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, Manchester GMB: manchester@ Sacramento IWW: 916-672-8881, Detroit GMB: P.O. Box 32236, 48232. Baltimore Bicycle Works: 1813 Falls P.O. Box 1, R3C 2G1. 204-299-5042, iww.org.uk [email protected] 313-437-3404, [email protected]. Rhode Island Road. Baltimore, MD 21201. www. [email protected] Sheffield GMB: IWW Office, SYAC, San Diego IWW: 619-630-5537, Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, Providence GMB: P.O. Box 23067, baltimorebicycleworks.com/about New Brunswick 120 Wicker, Sheffield S3 8JD (0114 [email protected] 49516. 616-881-5263. griww@ 02903. 401-484-8523. providence@ Daniel J. Fornika Scientific Consult- Fredericton: frederictoniww. 223 2100). [email protected] San Francisco Bay Area GMB: P.O. Box iww.org iww.org ing: [email protected] wordpress.com Norwich Bar and Hospitality Workers 11412, Berkeley, 94712. 510-845- Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Tennessee Evergreen Printing: 2412 Palmetto Ontario IUB 640: [email protected] 0540. [email protected] Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, Clarksville: Jonathan Beasley, del., Street, Oakland, CA. 510-482-4547, Ottawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local Nottingham GMB: [email protected] San Jose: SouthBayIWW@gmail. [email protected] 218 S 3rd St. Apt. 7-6, 37040. 931- [email protected] 6: 1106 Wellington St., P.O. Box West Midlands GMB: IWW, Bike com, www.facebook.com/SJSV.IWW Minnesota 220-9665. Lakeside Printing Cooperative: 1334 36042, Ottawa, K1Y 4V3. ott-out@ Foundry, 1539 Pershore Rd, Birming- Colorado Duluth IWW: P.O. Box 3232, 55803. Trenton: Jeremy Butler, del., 221 Williamson Street, Madison WI. 608- iww.org, [email protected] ham B30 2JH (0121 459 7276). Denver GMB: IWW, P.O. Box 12451, [email protected] Milan Hwy, 38382. 731-613-3067, 255-1800, www.lakesidepress.org Ottawa Panhandlers Union: [email protected] Denver, 80212. 814-758-7761. Twin Cities GMB: 2 E. Franklin [email protected] MoonDog’s Edibles: 54 East 200 Raymond Loomer, interim delegate, Bristol GMB: [email protected] [email protected] Ave Suite. 1, Minneapolis, 55406. Texas North, Salt Lake City, UT [email protected] Reading GMB: [email protected] Connecticut [email protected] Houston: Gus Breslauer, del., North Country Food Alliance: 770 Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water London GMB: [email protected] Connecticut: John W., del., 914-258- Missouri [email protected]. Facebook: Hamline Ave. N., St. Paul, MN. St. #17, K9H 3L7, 705-749-9694. 0941. [email protected] Houston IWW 612-568-4585. northcountryfoodal- Belgium Greater Kansas City IWW: P.O. Sean Carleton, del., 705-775-0663, DC Box 414304, Kansas City 64141. Rio Grande Valley, South Texas IWW: liance.org [email protected] Belgium IWW: [email protected] 816-866-3808. greaterkciww@ P.O. Box 5456 McAllen, Texas 78502. P & L Printing: 2727 W. 27th Ave., Toronto GMB: P.O. Box 45, Toronto P, German Language Area Washington DC GMB: P.O. Box 1303, gmail.com Greg, del., 956-278-5235 or Marco, Denver, CO. [email protected] 20013. 202-630-9620. dc.iww. M5S 2S6. 647-741-4998. toronto@ IWW German Language Area [email protected]. www.dciww.org, St. Louis IWW: P.O. Box 63142, del., 979-436-3719. iwwrgv@riseup. Paper Crane Press: 2 New Rd, Aston, iww.org. www.torontoiww.org Regional Organizing Committee www.facebook.com/dciww 63163. Secretary: stl.iww.secre- net. www.facebook.com/IWWRGV PA. 610-358-9496, papercrane- Windsor GMB: c/o WWAC, 328 Pelis- (GLAMROC): [email protected]. [email protected]. Treasurer: stl.iww. San Antonio: Christopher Preciado, [email protected]. www. sier St., N9A 4K7. 519-564-8036. www.wobblies.org Florida [email protected] TX at-large del., 210-660-6843 papercranepress.com [email protected]. http:// Austria (Vienna): iwwaustria@ Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Utah windsoriww.wordpress.com Center, 433 S. Main St., 32601. Montana Pedal Power Press: P.O. Box 3232 gmail.com, wien@wobblies. Salt Lake City: Michael Garcia, del., Duluth, MN 55802. www.pedal- Québec at. http://wobblies.org. www. [email protected], www. Construction Workers IU 330: powerpress.com facebook.com/pages/IWW- gainesvilleiww.org Dennis Georg, del., 406-490-3869, 801-891-5706, iwwmoondog@ Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montréal, Wien/381153168710911 Hobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine [email protected] gmail.com. [email protected] Phoenix Health PLC: FW Jeffrey Shea QC, H2J 4E1. 514-268-3394. iww_ Vermont Jones #102- 3237 Hennepin Ave. S, [email protected] Berlin: Offenes Treffen jeden 2.Mon- Circle, 33455-6608. 772-545-9591, Missoula IWW: Charles tag im Monat im Cafe Commune, [email protected] Copeland,del., 406-529-6404. Burlington: John MacLean, del., Minneapolis, MN. 612-501-6897 Europe [email protected]. Primal Screens Screen Printing: Reichenberger Str.157, 10999 Berlin, Orlando: Joey Leach, del., 978-424- 802-540-2561 1127 SE 10th Ave. #160, Portland, European Regional Administration 18 Uhr. (U-Bahnhof Kottbusser 8758. [email protected]. Two Rivers IWW: Jim Del Duca, del., Virginia (ERA): P.O. Box 7593, Glasgow, Tor). Postadresse: IWW Berlin, c/o Facebook: OrlandoIWW 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I, Bozeman OR. 503-267-1372, primalscreens@ G42 2EX. www.iww.org.uk. 0800 Rotes Antiquariat, Rungestr. 20, 59715. 406-599-2463. delducja@ Richmond IWW: P.O. Box gmail.com 998 9149 10179 Berlin, Germany. berlin@ South Florida GMB: P.O. Box 370457, gmail.com 7055, 23221. 804-496-1568. Profession Roofcare: 708 13th Bell- wobblies.org 33137. 305-894-6515. miami@iww. [email protected], www. ingham, WA 98225. 360-734-974, ERA Organisation Contacts org, http://iwwmiami.wordpress. Nebraska richmondiww.org [email protected]. Access Facilitator: Sue Fortune, Bremen: [email protected]. com. Facebook: Miami IWW Nebraska GMB: P.O. Box 27811, [email protected] www.iww-bremen.org Washington Red Emma’s Bookstore Co-op: 30 W. Tallahassee: www.facebook.com/ Ralston, 68127. nebraskagmb@iww. Bremerton: Gordon Glick, del., North Avenue, Baltimore, MD. 410- Central England Organiser: Russ Cologne/Koeln GMB: c/o IwwTallahassee org. www.nebraskaiww.org Spring, [email protected] Allerweltshaus, Koernerstr. 77-79, [email protected] 230-0450, [email protected] 50823 Koeln, Germany. cologne1@ Georgia Nevada Olympia: [email protected]. Red Lion Press - British Columbia, Communications Department, wobblies.org. www.iwwcologne. Atlanta GMB: P.O. Box 5390, 31107. Reno GMB: P.O. Box 12173, 89510. Dylan Brooks, del., x37pegasus@ Canada: [email protected] Chair - Xav Bear, communications@ 678-964-5169, [email protected], Paul Lenart, del., 775-513-7523, iww.org.uk wordpress.com riseup.net Sweet Patches Screenprinting: Frankfurt a.M. GMB: Frankfurt@ www.atliww.org [email protected] Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142 [email protected] Cymru/Wales Organiser: Peter Idaho IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Davies, [email protected] wobblies.org. http://Frankfurt. 98122-3934. 206-429-5285. Worth’s Lawn Care and More: 2 Wobblies.org Boise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box Kaminkow, del., P.O. Box 2131, [email protected]. Jess Grant, Sandalwood Dr., Davenport, FL. East of Scotland Organiser: Carol Hamburg-Waterkant: hamburg@ 453, 83701. 208-371-9752, eppink@ Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. del., [email protected] [email protected] Ince, [email protected] wobblies.org gmail.com [email protected] Spokane: P.O. Box 30222, 99223. Legal Officer: Guy Mitchel, Legal@ Illinois New Jersey [email protected] iww.org.uk Kassel: Rothe Ecke, Naumburger Str. IWW Branches & 20a, 34127 Kassel. kontakt@wobblies- Central Illinois, Champaign: David Central New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box Whatcom-Skagit GMB: skagitiww@ Local/Regional Contacts London Regional Organiser: Tawa- kassel.de. www.wobblies-kassel.de Johnson, del., 217-721-0583, davi- 10021, New Brunswick, 08906. 732- gmail.com, IWWBellingham@gmail. nda Nyabango Leipzig: [email protected] [email protected] 692-3491. [email protected]. com. www.bellinghamiww.com. Asia Membership Administrator: Philip Bob Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426. Facebook: Whatcom-Skagit IWW. Munich: [email protected] Chicago GMB: [email protected] www.newjerseyiww.org Taiwan LeMarque, [email protected] Wisconsin Rostock: iww-rostock@systemausfall. Indiana New Mexico Taiwan IWW: c/o David Temple, Merchandise Committee: merchan- Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701- 4 Floor, No. 3, Ln. 67, Shujing St., [email protected] org. iwwrostock.blogsport.eu Michiana GMB: Brad Laird, del., 574- Albuquerque GMB: 505-585-4499 245-0605, [email protected] 2442. www.madison.iww.org Beitun Dist., Taichung City 40641 Northern Regional Organiser: Sam Switzerland: [email protected] (4IWW), [email protected] Taiwan. 098-937-7029. taIW- Greece Iowa Madison Infoshop (I.U. 620): c/o [email protected] Frowien, [email protected] New York Rainbow Bookstore, 426 W. Gilman, Organising Department: Chair - Greece IWW: [email protected] Eastern Iowa IWW: 319-333-2476. New York City GMB: 45-02 23rd 53703. 608-260-0900. madinfos- Australia Tawanda Nyabango, organising@ Iceland: Heimssamband [email protected] Street, Suite #2, Long Island hop.wordpress.com/ New South Wales iww.org.uk Verkafólks / IWW Iceland, Reykja- Kansas City,11101. [email protected]. Milwaukee GMB: P.O. Box 342294, Sydney GMB: IWW-Sydney-gmb@ Research and Survey Department: víkurakademíunni 516, Hringbraut Wichita: Richard Stephenson, www.wobblycity.org 53234. [email protected]. iww.org.au. [email protected] 121,107 Reykjavík del., 620-481-1442. barfolumu@ Syracuse IWW: [email protected] 630-415-7315
3 Contents IWW DIRECTORY Organize and Mobilize! May Day mass action: ‘Strike from Below’ Service workers in the U.S. South unite in a general strike for the rights of workers, immigrants, Black Lives, Muslims, and all the other targets of the Trump Administration. 7
Look to the past to escape Trump’s present 1946 was the last year of the great general strikes. Trump plans to undo every workers’ gain since the 19th century. We need to 10 look back to the lessons from Oakland.
Coat-hanger direct action The best action is direct action. Sometimes keeping things simple works best in a complicated society. 12
Momentum builds for May Day strikes All around the U.S., workers are responding to assaults on rights—not from the bosses but from the government. 13
Industrial Worker Editor & Designer: Periodicals postage paid Chicago, IL. Roberta McNair Postmaster: Send address changes to IW, [email protected] P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA
Proofreaders: John Morrison, Gordon Glick The Voice of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism Subscriptions Electronic subscription for IWW members: Free Cover Photo: Collage of May Day posters, stick- Annual print subscription rate: Official periodical of the ers, and flyers from around the world. • U.S. IWW Members: $16 USD Industrial Workers of the World • Regular U.S. Subscriptions: $20 USD Post Office Box 180195 Printer: • ALL International Subscriptions: $28 USD Chicago, IL 60618 USA Sommers and Fahrenbach, Inc. (773) 728-0996 • [email protected] Chicago, IL Annual bundle subscription of 5 copies (20 total): www.iww.org • U.S. Subscriptions: $60 USD Next Submission Deadline: June 30, 2017 • International Subscriptions: $80 USD IWW General Secretary-Treasurer: Arella Vargas U.S. IW Mailing Address: Published quarterly in the winter, spring, Industrial Worker summer, and fall. Post Office Box 180195, IWW General Executive Board: Chicago, IL 60618 Jimi Del Duca, Michael MoonDog Garcia, Articles not so designated do not reflect the IWW’s official position. Adam Jones, Diane Krauthamer, Marianne ISSN 0019-8870 LeNabat, shugE Mississippi, Brandon S. Press Date: April 14, 2017 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 4 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017
most superlative article. It said many things of plotting to poison Soviet officials. that needed saying and it goes a long way Mercifully Stalin died and the doctors were to fighting anti-Semitism, which has yet to cleared. Incidentally, we are approaching be eradicated in the left. Jews have played a the 65th anniversary of the Night of the big role in the labor movement and among Murdered Poets. On August 12, 1952, Sta- American radicals. The Jewish radio station lin had 13 Jewish poets shot. This was part WEVD, was named after Eugene Victor of Stalin’s anti-cosmopolitan campaign. Debs. Upton Sinclair said that after he Jewish agriculture outside of Israel became a socialist, half of his readers, and has continued in modern times. There has The Winter IW had an article about half of his friends were Jewish. In his excel- been Jewish farming in both Czarist Russia “Jewish faces in the IWW.” It profiled a lent article, Fellow Worker Muraskin has and the Soviet Union. There were many number of historical members. In what referred to HIAS, the Workmen’s Circle, Jewish farms in New Jersey. In that regard sense can the people profiled be labeled and the Jewish Labor Committee. These see the book The Land Was Theirs: Jewish “Jewish”? I suspect the author does so on groups have played a major role in Jewish Farmers in the Garden State, by Gertrude the basis of their last names. A last name radicalism and mutual aid. I congratulate Wishnick Dubovsky (University of Ala- cannot be used to determine a person’s reli- him for that. bama Press). gion, or lack of one. Do we know whether Muraskin has done much to rehabilitate In Europe during the Middle Ages, Sam Dolgoff, Ben Reitman, Judith Malina, the reputation of Dr. Ben Reitman, who in most countries, Jews were barred from or any of the others were actually Jewish in medically and humanely treated the for- farming and were not permitted to own that they accepted a god named Jehovah? saken. Manifestation of this included Reit- land. They were often expelled from coun- Professed atheists like Dolgoff, Goldman, man’s school for hobos, and his free medical try after country, and Jews were barred or Reitman cannot also be Jewish. I speak treatment of hobos and prostitutes. from the guilds. from experience, having been raised in the However there is one sentence that I reassert that Bennett Muraskin has faith until I was old enough to know that I feeds into a misconception. He says, “His- written a most excellent article that should did not believe in any god. torically, Jews are an urban people.” This is be read by all Wobblies. It goes a long way —D. Tucker, Bellingham, Washington not true. Stalin used this prejudice in his to combatting bigotry and gives use useful, campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans” interesting, and important history. Dear Fellow Workers: when he was planning a genocide against In solidarity, “Jewish faces in the Industrial Workers the Jews of Soviet Russia. In 1953, several of the World” by Bennett Muraskin is a Russian Jewish doctors had been accused Raymond S. Solomon IW Honoring Joe Hill, 100 years later Fellow Workers, Joe Hill was murdered by the State of Utah, November 19, 1915. Two years later, his ashes were distributed and spread across the world by Wobblies [http://local.sltrib.com/charts/joehill/ashes. html]. A memorial and gathering to honor Joe Hill, and his contribu- tion to the Workers of the World, will be held on the 100th anni- versary of the spreading of his ashes May 1st at 7:00 p.m. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery 700 W Raye St., Seattle, WA 98119 ~North end of Queen Anne Hill~ Please join us Monday, May 1st at 7:00 p.m.—in song and solidarity.
Joe Hill’s “will,” written while in the Utah State Prison
5 Caboose to house Bruce “UTAH” Phillips library By Ron Kaminkow In the 1970s, Bruce “Utah” Phillips signed a deal with Philo Records and Shut it down! bought an 1890s-era flanger rail car from the Central Vermont Railway for $500. Utah had the car moved to the property of Philo Records in Wolcott, VT, in order MAY DAY to live in it while he made a series of recordings there. Nearly a half century later, general strike Utah’s son Duncan has been able to acquire the car and plans to relocate the car to the grounds of the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture in Weed, CA, where Monty Kroopkin, IWW San Diego Branch, his Dad would have wanted it. April 4, 2017 We are raising the funds to load the caboose onto a couple of flat-bed trucks, ship it across the country, unload it onto the soon-to-be-built track pad, and Fellow Workers, Friends, restore it to the way it looked when Utah lived in it. We are doing an online fun- Representing more than 100 local unions in our region, the San Diego–Imperial Coun- draiser and also accepting cash, checks, money orders, spare change, you name it, ties Labor Council has endorsed the calls for a to reach our goal of $25,000. General Strike on May 1, 2017. This is truly Please donate what you can today. See the website at www.thelongmemory. an historic moment! The same migrant and com and find the online fundraiser button/link to donate. Or if you prefer, write immigrant constituency that struck 11 years a check or money order payable to The Long Memory. Mail it to: The Long ago on May 1, 2006, will mobilize this year, Memory, P.O. Box 711694, Salt Lake City, UT 84171. When complete, the rail joined by Black Lives Matter, native sover- car will house a complete collection of Utah Phillips’ work and become a gather- eignty rights groups, and organizations Voces ing spot for musicians and friends to sing, play music, tell stories, and carry on in de La Frontera and Movimiento Cosecha. Shut It Down! No work, no school, and the tradition of Fellow Worker Bruce “Utah” Phillips. don’t buy anything! Please Donate Today and Help to Make This Happen!
Utah Phillips’ “flanger” caboose, in Wolcott Vermont
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 6 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 Industrial Workers of the World returns to San Diego By Marie Ida Johnson and Preston why people should join the union. (Religious commemoration, a few local IWW members Chipps speakers similarly standing on soapboxes had called a meeting, and over a score of local never “earned” an ordinance to stop them.) union activists began holding monthly meet- For the first time in several decades, the As many as 5,000 Wobblies, along with ings and building a new San Diego branch. IWW, also known as “the Wobblies,” is organizing many others, answered the call from Local 13 During these past five years, IWW workers again in San Diego. The IWW’s General to come to San Diego, stand up on a soapbox, members presented a 2012 teach-in (for Oc- Executive Board has issued a new charter for a violate the ordinance, get arrested, and refuse cupy San Diego) on the Haymarket Incident San Diego General Membership Branch (GMB). bail to force the city treasury to pay for their of 1886. We initiated a weekend-long train- A proud history in San Diego “room and board” in jail until the ordinance ing conference, open to all workers and con- By 1907, just two years after our union’s was repealed. The fire department turned fire ducted by the IWW’s Organizing Depart- founding, Wobblies were organizing in San hoses on the crowds, and one free-speech ment, at the offices of American Federation Diego. By 1910, IWW Mixed Local 13, a demonstrator died due to injuries inflicted of Teachers (AFT) Local 1931. We sponsored predecessor of today’s General Membership upon him by police officers in San Diego. The a “stop” at the union hall of the San Diego Branch, was chartered. That August, Mexican jail was filled to over-capacity. This new tactic Education Association (SDEA) for the “Joe immigrant IWWs struck at San Diego Con- of filling the jails, pioneered by IWW, was Hill Roadshow,” a national concert tour solidated Gas and Electric (now SDG&E) often used later and by other movements, observing the centennial of the murder of Joe and won higher wages and a union shop. including the Civil Rights Movements’ Hill by the State of Utah. We participated in The union shop at the utility didn’t survive Freedom Riders during the 1960s. We won the planning of annual May Day rallies and long as, unfortunately, many of the members the San Diego Free Speech Fight. This, along concerts. We joined picket lines put up by soon returned to Mexico to participate in the with similar Free Speech Fights in other cities, other unions, every chance we got. We are in Revolution. Also in August 1910, sewer dig- was a major victory for the First Amendment the early stages of organizing workers at the gers went on strike. They were composed of right of all people to freely and peacefully County of San Diego, and we have filed em- Mexican, Greek, and Italian immigrants, and assemble in American workers. The American workers public. were getting paid 25 cents per day more. The As America Mexicans were all IWW members and called recovered from the strike, and they were supported by most the long night- of the other workers. They won the strike, mare of the got their 25-cent-a-day raise—and a closed 1950s’ McCar- union shop at the sewer company. That same thyism, Wob- month, IWW members won a strike against blies supported the Barber Asphalt Company. the birth of the In 1911, Wobblies were instrumental “New Left” and in the Magonist Revolution in Mexicali participated in and Tijuana. Many Wobblies participated building national in the Tijuana Commune, in which ordi- organizations, nary working people democratically ran the such as Students city. When another faction of the Mexican for a Democratic Revolution gained control of Baja California, Society (SDS). Wobblies who were not citizens of Mexico Here in San Di- were deported. Most of those deported were ego in 1970, first Americans, who were promptly imprisoned the street sellers for violation of the Neutrality Act. and then the rest The IWW is best known in San Di- of the staff of the ego for one of its boldest moments. From San Diego Street Journal newspaper organized ployee organization registration papers with 1912–1913, Local 13 fought the bloody San as an IWW shop. With over 100 members, the the County’s Labor Relations Office. Diego Free Speech Fight right on the streets branch was the largest in the US at the time, In 2017, once again, a San Diego IWW of downtown. After the San Diego Com- until the paper closed in 1972. From 1976 to Branch has been chartered. Once again, that mon Council passed an ordinance restricting 1979, the student-owned-and-operated Print old Local 13 spirit lives. Labor historian gatherings within 49 blocks of the center Co-op at the University of California San Di- Staughton Lynd has observed that, “The of San Diego, Local 13 sent out a call for ego carried the IWW union “bug.” During this IWW has always had an influence out IWW members everywhere to come to San time a group of local musicians, the “Squalling of proportion to the size of its member- Diego to engage in civil disobedience to Panther Fiddle Band,” were IWW members ship.” Today, with almost 90 percent of the fight for repeal of the ordinance, and the San and used the IWW Recreational Workers workforce in this country not unionized, Diego Free Speech Fight was born. Under Industrial Union (IU) 630 contract. the IWW is again growing, promoting the the ordinance, any group of three or more In 2012, the San Diego–Imperial Coun- solidarity of working people everywhere, people was subject to arrest. The ordinance ties Labor Council organized a commemora- and living our motto that “An Injury to was aimed at union organizers who stood up tion program for the centennial of the IWW’s One, Is an Injury to All!” IW on soapboxes on sidewalks and talked about San Diego Free Speech Fight. Following the
7
‘Strike from Below’ By Sue Sturgis, www.facingsouth.org March 30th, 2017 Hundreds of thousands of service workers across the South and the rest of the nation are planning to take part in a general strike for human rights and equality on May Day, which marks International Workers’ Day. Organizers say the May 1 Strike, which aims to express the collective power of the country’s most marginalized workers and to stop attacks by the Trump administra- tion and its corporate allies, is the biggest general-strike organizing effort in the U.S. in over 70 years. “The Trump administration’s dangerous attacks against food worker families and all marginalized people continue a centuries- long history of oppression,” the organizers said in a statement. “We will not sit by as families are shattered by immigration raids, Native sovereignty is violated, Muslims are banned, and Black and Brown communi- ties face even more criminalization, trans people [are] excluded and while corporate interest[s] drive down wages, safety protec- Atlanta welcomes immigrants and refugees tions, organizing rights, and rapidly destroy the environment.” Representatives but failed in the Senate. port for unions, especially among young and The strike is being organized by the Immigrants and immigrants rights advo- low-wage workers. For example, three-quar- Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) cates are also playing key roles in organizing ters of people ages 18 to 29 say they have a and the Service Employees International this year’s May Day strike, which is being favorable opinion of labor unions compared Union United Service Workers West (SEIU discussed on social media using the hashtags to only about half of those 50 and older. USWW). The FCWA is a national coalition #May1Strike and #ShutItDownMay1. And unions are viewed favorably by 61 per- of worker-based organizations including the ‘More powerful than hate and greed’ cent of people who earn less than $30,000. Farmworker Association of Florida, the Mis- The last time a general strike of compa- A number of traditional union locals sissippi Workers Center for Human Rights, rable magnitude took place in the U.S. was are involved in the May 1 Strike through Northwest Arkansas Workers Justice Center, in Oakland, California, in 1946—a year that their membership in the FCWA, including OUR Walmart, and the Restaurant Oppor- saw numerous labor actions nationwide by the Teamsters Joint Council 7, UFCW Lo- tunities Center United (ROCU), while the workers whose demands for higher wages cal 770 and UNITE HERE’s Food Service SEIU USWW represents more than 40,000 had been repressed during World War II. Division. But also represented in the alliance janitors, security officers, airport service The Oakland General Strike was called behind the strike are nonprofit workers’ workers, and other property service workers in December of that year to support the city’s centers that organize and provide support in California. striking department store workers, who were to low-wage workers who aren’t represented The strike also involves the Movement mostly women and poorly paid as a conse- by traditional unions or are legally excluded for Black Lives, National Domestic Workers quence. Over 100,000 workers participated from union coverage by labor laws. Some of Alliance, Alliance for Fair Food, and other in the general strike and effectively shut down the first workers centers were established by groups that advocate for embattled workers the city, as In These Times reported. African-American activists in the Carolinas and communities. But the Oakland General Strike fell in the late 1970s and early 1980s. So far, 350,000 service workers have apart after a day, and it and the many other In advance of the May 1 action, orga- pledged to strike, BuzzFeed reports. That labor actions that year led to passage of the nizers have set up a GoFundMe page to raise includes about 300,000 food chain workers anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which money for the general strike fund with a and 40,000 unionized service workers. limited strikes and allowed states to pass $100,000 goal. They are also inviting people The action is set to take place 11 years so-called “right-to-work” laws that weaken to volunteer for a rapid-response network to to the day after the Great American Boycott, unions by barring employees in unionized challenge any retaliation taken against strik- also known as A Day Without Immigrants, workplaces from being compelled to join ing workers using protest, online advocacy, a general strike of undocumented immigrant the union or pay dues. Today a total of 28 and pro-bono legal representation. workers and their supporters called to pro- states have right-to-work laws on the books, “We need to show this administration, test the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, including all 13 Southern states—one of the Congress, and large corporate interests that and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 reasons why the traditional union movement our human and economic worth is more (H.R. 4437), draconian immigration reform is so weak in the region. powerful than their agenda of hate and legislation that passed the U.S. House of However, polls show growing sup- greed,” the organizers said. IW
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 8 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 LUCI: LA Union Cooperative Initiative The next day the drinking water, on-time breaks, overtime employees came to paid, contracts with a percentage above work and the car wash the minimum wage, and we also negoti- service did not open, ate holidays and get paid for sick days that nor did the owner ap- they do not use,” Ramirez said. pear. Most important, in this case, is that “We were waiting workers now feel they have a voice and feel three days for answers they are being heard, the representative and for our check, and added. she told us that she had Happy employees already given it to the José Manuel Zúñiga, 56, and part of union,” said Cruz, say- the group of 13 car washers that make up ing it was a lie. the cooperative, said that when he saw the They form a coopera- strength of his colleagues to fight for the tive business he decided to join. Zúñiga had The disappoint- some fear of losing his job, but he did not ment of losing their lose faith. The 13 workers who decided to join and form a cooperative celebrate job, instead of cowing “I am happy to be part of this group, the anniversary of their business (Photo: Aurelia Ventura / La Opin- them, strengthened the because now I know it is a very strong ión) http://www.luci.coop/ 13 workers, who decided obligation,” he added. By Jacqueline García, February 22, 2017 to take over the business Rusty Hicks, executive director of the themselves. With the help of their union, Los Angeles County Labor Federation Car washers celebrate their car wash United Steelworkers Local 675, and the (AFL-CIO), who was present at the car business in South Los Angeles. After the Los Angeles Union Cooperative (LUCI) wash celebration, said that this group of owner closed the company overnight, 13 they began to raise funds. employees is a role model. workers organized and re-registered the The group registered the business again “The fight for workers to have a better service as a cooperative. but this time as a workers’ cooperative. In life began in this same place four or five After a battle to get unionized, the this case the business is controlled by the years ago and now we are back where the Vermont Gage Car Wash was one of 16 workers, who have invested money. The employees have advanced and they have businesses that did it in 2014. But before profits of the business are equitable and the shown us that if you want something done enjoying the benefits of the union, the board of directors of the cooperative is in right you have to do it yourself,” Hicks said workers had to face a crisis. charge of voting in the decisions. Workers congratulating them on having the courage Miguel Cruz was one of the 13 union- continue to benefit from their union, and to continue the business under his com- ized workers of the car wash who already LUCI advises them on business develop- mand. IW enjoyed worker protections. In 2015, the ment. 31-year-old Mexican, who lived near work, This article originaly appeared in Spanish at Union representative Manuel Ramirez http://laopinion.com/2017/02/22/carwashe- saw one night that they were taking things said United Steelworkers Local 675 repre- out of the business. ros-celebran-su-negocio-de-lavado-de-autos- sents about 30 car wash businesses ranging en-el-sur-de-los-angeles/. “The owner closed the business with- from San Diego to Pasadena. out telling us anything,” recalls Cruz. “We strive for workers to have safe
You’re Lucky As long as you keep your head down, kid And think that you’re all on your own That You Have a CHORUS: Well, I can just do what I like, kid D G As long as you think you’re alone Job Lucky, Lucky CHORUS A D Lyrics by S. Harvey, June 2016 You’re lucky that you have a job I don’t want to hear One Big Union (To the tune of “The Soup Song/My Bonnie D G Or the rest of that old lefty crap Lucky, Lucky Lies Over the Ocean”) ‘Cause I do live in fear of the prospect A D You’re lucky that you have a job That you’ll organize out of my trap D G D You’re lucky that you have a job, kid CHORUS D G A There’s plenty of desperate people So let’s sing the song that I love most: You’re lucky that you’re getting paid Who’ll work for the money I pay Of course, it’s “You Did It My Way” D G D There’s thousands more out there just like you You’d better just keep your mouth shut, kid You know you’re a valued team member So you’d better just do things my way G A D As long as you do what I say. You’d better just stay well afraid CHORUS CHORUS
9 Unions & cooperatives: Allies in the struggle to build democratic workplaces By Lisabeth L. Ryder, Grassroots Eco- ships. In these campaigns around the coun- and more reckless bets to recoup devastat- nomic Organizing try, organizers have seen worker coopera- ing losses). Worker cooperatives tend to http://www.geo.coop/node/199 tives as providing means for improving the be small business endeavors, ideologically As labor organizers, we struggle in lives of these workforces. ... As members of attractive but strategically unattractive. the field every day to improve the lives of organized labor, they would be in a better To win the numbers game, labor must workers; we are in search of tools and alter- position to speak truth to power. do a better job of agitating, educating, and natives for working people that will meet Worker cooperatives are usually mobilizing its members to become volun- the needs of today’s casualized and insecure restricted to the private sector, but sub- teer member organizers actively involved in workforce, with shrinking or negligible contracting of public sector jobs creates small scale organizing campaigns in their benefits. It is in the spirit of innovative an opportunity for organizing worker local communities on an ongoing basis. leadership that we propose that the labor cooperatives in the public sector. The As it stands, most locals lack an organiz- movement use worker cooperatives, an al- conservative program of cutting taxes and ing program and lack organizing targets. ternative organizing strategy added to more shrinking government has led to a public Empowering locals to help organize worker traditional labor organizing methods, as a sector workforce under attack. The rising cooperatives in their community would means of returning control of their lives to tide of contracting out public sector jobs is benefit all working people. the American working people. shrinking the core workforce for traditional Therefore we appeal to the worker The work of unions is to create work- organizing of public sector unions. Yet the cooperative community to join with us in place democracy, and in the larger picture, large national and international corpora- developing the labor-coop paradigm by economic democracy. Currently, we do this tions that contract with public agencies helping us to find organizing targets in the in the context of an adversarial relationship have proven difficult targets for traditional worker cooperative model. As we all know, between employer and employee. A worker labor organizing. the labor movement is built on small in- cooperative is an alternative that reaches When traditional organizing methods cremental gains of brave committed people outside of the limitations of this model, have failed against a subcontractor, unions standing up for their ideals. Healthcare and converting workplaces into democratically could assist the workers in forming their other benefits, worker’s compensation, the run institutions owned by the workers. unit into a worker cooperative that could forty-hour work week, eight-hour over- Worker cooperatives are not a panacea for bid for the local contract. Since they would time, vacations and sick days, pay increases, the woes of today’s labor movement. Yet not be supporting large management sala- health and safety regulations, and the ever- worker cooperatives have a long history ries, they could under-bid the large corpo- popular weekend add up to a lifestyle we in the American workers’ struggle for rate subcontractor. now take for granted. Many smaller bites economic democracy and hold potential The labor movement could then use may prove a more easily digestible staple for expanding the labor movement into their lobbying strength to create legislation diet for union organizing without preclud- unexpected workforces, as well as providing and budgetary policy favoring local worker ing the periodic feast. IW alternatives for better serving the workers cooperatives. Awarding a contract locally keeps Lisabeth Ryder is the Western regional field we already represent. the monies in the local community, within administrator for the American Federation Our objective is to bring about an the local tax base. Much like the Living Wage of State County & Municipal Employees in institutional change that allows members of campaigns, this strategy would help stem the Oakland, California. [email protected] worker cooperatives to become full dues- tide of outsourcing of public paying members of labor unions and to sector jobs, while safeguard- make the formation of new worker coop- ing of public monies and eratives one of our organizing strategies. ensuring the greatest com- Unions could assist in the formation of munity benefit from the S worker cooperatives by forming an organiz- expenditure of public funds. ing committee in the workplace, research- Yet there are obstacles ing a business plan, finding funding to this marriage. The la- O sources, preparing the legal structure, bor movement is in a life preparing the documents of incorporation, and death struggle in an L offering training in leadership development economic war. Represent- and conflict resolution, acquiring health- ing only eleven percent of care coverage, and structuring a pension the American workforce, I plan and 401(k). Incorporating worker the labor movement seeks cooperatives into union membership would to organize in larger and broaden our political power and dues base, larger bites with fewer D as well as expand our organizing potential. and less experienced staff As the labor movement moves into (for those in the field, organizing non-traditional workforces, such this sometimes seems A as child and home care providers, we have uncomfortably close to already started moving away from the realm the logic of the desperate of traditional employer–employee relation- gambler who places larger R ITY
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 10 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 To escape Trump’s America, we need to bring the militant labor tactics of 1946
By Brandon S. cessful—and the business unions accepted tactics of 1946 back to the future! the new laws. In fact, they even went The Oakland General Strike began Back to the Future, Part 1: beyond them by voluntarily adding “no- early in the morning of December 3, It seems that since the day after the strike clauses” to every union contract for 1946, when police were trying to break 2016 US election, the Internet has been the last 70 years, and agreeing that when up a picket line of mostly female depart- ablaze with calls for “general strikes.” Janu- they do strike in between contracts it will ment store clerks who had been on strike ary 20th, March 8th, May 1st … there only be for their own wages and working since October 21 (“Back to the Future have been more Internet calls for general conditions, not to support anybody else or Day”). A streetcar driver saw it happen- strikes than we’ve ever seen before, though to apply pressure about things happening ing and stopped his car. This stopped all what people mean by “general strike” in the broader society. When we allowed the cars behind him. All of the passengers seems to be vaguer than ever. But can ourselves to lose our most important who were no longer going to work began these calls for general strikes go from word weapons 70 years ago, we took the first immediately picketing at other businesses to deed, or are they just a new version of step towards Trump’s America. We’re stuck in Oakland, calling out those workers, and “Occupy Nothing, Demand Everything”? in the wrong timeline—if we want to get shutting down the businesses. The strike Working class people in the US have for- out, we have to bring the militant labor spread from there. There are some impor- gotten how to wage successful strikes on even a small scale—or rather we’ve been made to forget. If we want to start win- ning, we have to re-learn what it takes. This article was originally written in the aftermath of the election, as a re- sponse to the original calls for a “general strike” to prevent Trump’s inauguration. The original article has been split into two parts for publication. The first part examines the last official general strike in the US, just over 70 years ago in Oakland, CA, and asks what we can learn for today. The second part will look closer at the current possibilities we have for building a fighting working-class movement from the bottom-up, one that knows how to strike and win. The last general strike in the US was in Oakland in 1946. That year there were six citywide general strikes, plus nationwide strikes in steel, coal, and rail transport. More than five million work- ers struck in the biggest strike wave of US history. So what happened? Why haven’t we ever gone out like that again? Congress amended US labor law in 1947, adding massive penalties for the very tactics that had allowed strikes to spread and be suc- The retail workers who began the general strike. Oakland, 1946.
11 in solidarity with other workers, support- ing the demands of the first group, and adding their own. (I say “semi”-sponta- neously because the working class had years of practice and preparation leading into each strike—something that’s been forcibly removed from our culture over the past 70 years.) Yet by the third day of the Oakland General Strike, the local union leadership was already declaring that the strike was over and everyone except the retail workers should go back to work. As the streetcar drivers were told by their union president, “The Inter- national Brotherhood of Teamsters is bitterly opposed to any general strike for any cause. I am therefore ordering you and all those associated with you who are members of our International Union to return to work as soon as possible … No general strike has ever yet brought success to the labor movement.” Once the retail workers were left to keep striking alone, Picketers crowd Broadway in Oakland, backing traffic up for blocks it was only a matter of time before they were beaten and had to give up. If we’re tant points that we should draw from this: fellow workers against the cops. Since serious about reviving strikes, we need 1. The heroes of this story are the depart- 1947, “secondary strikes” like that have to prepare people as much as we can for ment store clerks who maintained an been illegal, and his union could have how quickly the union leadership and the effective picket for six weeks, shutting been attacked by the court—but the Democratic Party will do everything they down the operations of the business, union probably would have been train- can to prevent strikes from the start, and refusing limitations on their ability to ing him all along that he can only strike to get workers back to work. picket, and defending their picket when in between contracts, and definitely not for anyone else’s cause. We need to reject The 1946 Oakland General Strike the cops were trying to break it. We represents the last gasp of the militant labor need to re-learn how to organize “hard” any limitation on our ability to strike in support of fellow workers, or to strike movement that “the greatest generation” pickets, which actually disrupt com- built. They were standing on the shoul- merce, and how to defend those pickets about things beyond our own specific workplaces. ders of giants, but by trusting politicians, from our enemies. We also need to reject bureaucrats, and “the rule of law” they also all of the limitations that courts, and the 3. The passengers on his streetcar and allowed their movement to be shackled, unions, will tell us we have to impose on the ones behind it also deserve credit hobbled, and eventually drawn and quar- our pickets. for immediately forming mass pickets, tered. We can learn from their movement, 2. The streetcar driver who stopped his reinforcing the retail workers’ picket, and but we can only take it as a starting point. car when he saw the cops breaking the also spreading throughout the city and Ours will have to be even bolder. We’ll picket deserves an honorable mention, pulling other workers out on strike. They look next time at some of the seeds in our like Peter Norman (“the white dude” at didn’t come up with this all in the mo- present movements that can blossom into the Mexico City Olympics). He knew ment; they learned how to do this over mighty oaks. IW which side he was on, and he didn’t just years of tough strikes, including keep moving. He saw fellow workers the 1934 general strike in San under attack and he used his power as a Francisco that also shut down worker to support the right side—despite Oakland. Mass pickets have also the fact that the retail workers strike had been illegal since 1947, and we’ve no immediate tie to his own wages and lost those traditions. We urgently working conditions. He didn’t ask his need to relearn them. union if it was OK. He didn’t wait to 4. The unions didn’t call the go back to his union meeting and ask Oakland General Strike—but them to pass a resolution supporting the they sure as hell called it off, and retail workers. Basically, it doesn’t even left the retail workers alone in matter whether he was a union member. the cold. The general strikes that It doesn’t even matter if he abstractly have happened in the US have thought that women should be quit- almost never been called ahead ting their jobs now that World War II of time by union. They’ve almost was over, or if he abstractly supported always happened by workers’ Jim Crow—in practice, he supported Workers from blue-, white-, and pink-collar jobs joined semi-spontaneously going on strike the strike
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 12 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 Coat-hanger direct action By Andrew Miller Union is the only one I count on to work or less of the population in Congressional At the end of the 2016 session of the for equal rights and the defeat of patriarchal districts around the country could reverse Ohio house and senate, the politicians passed capitalism, corporatism, and fascism. Congress’s position on most of these issues, several pet-project bills, including two bills For most people, though, they shy away as long as that one percent represents major- that unconstitutionally restrict a woman’s from taking to the streets, because the risk ity public opinion.” Nader said. “Activists access to abortions. One of these was entitled feels too big: The cost of taking time to make usually hold mass rallies against war or the “Heartbeat Bill” which would make picket signs or even to just show up feels too climate change in Washington, D.C., on a abortion illegal after as early as six weeks, high, and the ease of push-button-protest weekend, when members of Congress aren’t something already declared unconstitutional feels like enough of an effort. Unfortunately, there. All this energy that it takes to put by the federal Supreme Court. The other it is only through direct action that we can together a rally sort of goes up into the ether. bill would prevent abortion after 20 weeks, get the goods. The event doesn’t get that much coverage ei- which is also currently unconstitutional So why’d the coat hanger protest bring ther, because there are not as many reporters under the Roe v Wade decision, which allows out so much support? Certainly women’s working on the weekend. The activists don’t an abortion up to 24 weeks. rights are a hot issue, particularly now that take up a collection at the rally and raise Earlier in 2016, the Obama administra- we have a “pussy-grabber-in-chief,” but money to open an office with four full-time tion was forced to take action to block states Trump’s fascist rhetoric—including more- employees. With two hundred thousand from defunding Planned Parenthood, which aggressive policing of protestors—has people people, you can quickly raise enough to pay had been attempted here in Ohio scared. four people’s salaries for a year. Then, when as well. If you’re unaware, Planned the members of Congress came Parenthood is a primary source of back on a weekday, they would healthcare and pregnancy preven- find more than just a bunch of tion for women, particularly work- crushed cups and soda cans on the ing class women. Mall. They would find four full- A broad cross-section of my time advocates who are connected comrades and I made calls, repeat- with a lot more people. edly, to Ohio Gov. Kasich asking “We have to be smarter,” him to veto the bills. With each Nader continued. “Don’t just passing day that Kasich was unre- hope that the government will sponsive we were losing hope. This hear you. Summon the senators wasn’t just a matter of whether he and representatives to your town vetoed the bills or signed them into meetings. We are the sovereign law; it was also a matter that if he people, and we have to make our took no action in two weeks, the hired hands in Congress come to bills would become law automati- our events and do their homework cally. on the issues.” After a week of silence from the The fence around Ohio’s Statehouse is festooned with coat hangers Political rapper P.O.S often Kasich camp, I had a random idea to place speaks about increasing the ten- wire hangers along the fencing that separates I think the key to this action was that sion. Tension is key. This isn’t the difference the Ohio Statehouse from the Rife Tower, it was easy: People were invited to come between peaceful protest and violent protest; where Kasich’s office is. down and put up their hangers at their own this is about making it clear that there is One post to Facebook about the idea time and pace. It was easy, because most something to be lost and something to be grew into hundreds of wire hangers. People people have a few wire hangers in their closet gained. This is about making people feel like had adorned them with messages and red rib- already. the only way to shake the tension is to do bons lining the fence along three of the four It had a social aspect to it for the people something about it. city blocks that surround the Statehouse. who wanted to participate en masse, as well, Peace or violence will occur as deemed Hours later local media was covering with other people attaching a march and a necessary, and we must be accomplices in the action, which led to national coverage in meet-up to the action. Even people not able this with our fellow workers, not simply al- The New York Times, New York Magazine, The to come down to the Statehouse managed to lies to them. Huffington Post, and Think Progress. join in by purchasing large quantities of wire The Indigenous Action organization As a State employee, I technically work hangers online and having them shipped expressed this best in their manifesto on the under Kasich—but as I see it I work for the directly to the Governor’s office. topic by stating that, “As accomplices we people of Ohio. I take this very seriously, of- In an interview with The Sun magazine are compelled to become accountable and ten to my own detriment, such as losing out titled “It’s Easier Than We Think,” retired responsible to each other. That is the nature on various opportunities that more compli- politician and social activist Ralph Nader of trust.” ant employees receive. And as a human being gave a critique of American activism. He This coat-hanger direct action resulted I think it is an equally serious endeavor to explained why serious social issues often in a veto of the Heartbeat Bill, but Kasich work for equality and liberty—which is why, failed to overcome special-interest corporate signed the 20-week ban, so now the courts even as a card-carrying AFSCME–OCSEA lobbyists. The answer seems so obvious, but will decide, at the cost of women’s rights and unionist, I’m a Wobbly first. The One Big is rarely put into action. taxpayer dollars. “It all comes down to us. One percent Solidarity forever. IW
13 Momentum builds for MAY DAY strikes By Jonathan Rosenblum, employees are schedul- LaborNotes,March 23, 2017 ing strike votes in the coming weeks. Shop steward Tomas Mejia sensed some- “We’re horrified thing was different when 600 janitors streamed about what Trump into the Los Angeles union hall February has done,” said Alex 16—far more than for a regular membership Bacon, a community meeting. Chanting “Huelga! Huelga!” (“Strike! college administrative Strike!”), they voted unanimously to strike on assistant and member May Day. of AFSCME Local 304. This won’t be a strike against their em- And given the Trump ployers. The janitors of SEIU United Service administration’s sup- Workers West felt driven, Mejia says, “to strike port for “right-to-work” with the community” against the raids, threats, legislation and slashing and immigrant-bashing hate speech that the healthcare and retire- Trump administration has unleashed. ment programs, he “The president is attacking our communi- said, “even if we’re not ty,” said Mejia, a member of his union’s execu- in the crosshairs this tive board. “Immigrants have helped form this second, we’re next.” country, we’ve contributed to its beauty, but ‘Summer of resis- the president is attacking us as criminal.” tance’ Following the Los Angeles vote, union A March meeting janitors elsewhere in California have also voted organized by the county to “strike with the community” on May 1. As labor council and Se- the meetings gathered steam, Mejia reports, attle City Councilmem- workers in schools, grocery stores, restaurants, ber Kshama Sawant and farms started talking about joining the week of workshops and protests culminating in brought together immigrant community leaders walkout too. a big May 1 mobilization. and representatives from two dozen Seattle-area And the strike is going on the road: unions—including laborers, Teamsters, Boeing Local connections SEIU-USWW is partnering with the human machinists, stagehands, hotel workers, and city Nationally, many union leaders haven’t rights group Global Exchange, worker centers, and county workers—to plan a May Day of weighed in on the May Day strike movement, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, mass resistance. Participants acknowledged the in part because their contracts with employers and faith groups to organize a “Caravan against need for creativity rather than a one-size-fits-all include no-strike clauses. Fear” that will tour California, Arizona, New approach. Mejia acknowledges the risk of striking, Mexico, and Texas in April, staging rallies, cul- A week later, the Labor Council com- but says, “The government is criminalizing us.” tural events, direct-action trainings, and com- mitted its support for an immigrant-led May The bigger risk, he says, would be to not fight munity strike votes leading up to May Day. Day march, in a resolution urging unions “to back, because inaction will only embolden The biggest yet consider all forms of action on May 1, 2017, Trump and his billionaire backers. In recent years, May Day has seen dem- whether striking, walking out, taking sick Key to successful May Day strikes, many onstrations to support immigrant rights. This days, extended lunch hours, exercising rights activists point out, is connecting local fights year’s mobilizations will center on defending of conscience, organizing demonstrations or to anti-Trump resistance activities. At the immigrants but weave in other issues as well, teach-ins, or any other acts of collective expres- University of Washington, for instance, where such as climate justice and the de-funding of sion that builds solidarity across communities.” one-third of the graduate employees are inter- public education. Labor Council head Nicole Grant national students, union members are demand- Up and down the West Coast, we are described May Day as just the beginning of a ing that university administrators bargain with likely to see the largest May Day strikes since “summer of resistance,” showing that working them over the impact of Trump’s Muslim ban hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers people can and will respond to Trump’s attacks and other executive orders. And they are press- walked off the job in 2006. with disruptive action. “We won’t take down ing the university to declare itself a “sanctuary A thousand miles to the north of Mejia’s this president in one day,” added Sawant. “But campus” and to waive a discriminatory fee it home city, leaders of the unions represent- on May Day we are taking our resistance to now imposes on international students. IW ing Seattle public school teachers, graduate another level.” Jonathan Rosenblum is the author of Beyond $15: employees at the University of Washington, and Climate justice activists are also folding Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the staff at Seattle’s community colleges have called into the May Day movement. In Washington Revival of the Labor Movement (Beacon Press). for a strike to protest the Trump administra- state, the Sierra Club and other environmental A member of UAW Local 1981 (National Writers tion’s attacks on immigrants, Muslims, workers, organizations are calling for an “Earth Day to Union), he also works as a community organizer for women, and members of the LGBT communi- May Day Action Week,” blending Earth Day the office of Seattle City Councilmember Kshama ty. The public school teachers and UW graduate April 22 and a “March for Science” into a full Sawant.
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 14 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017
Forced overtime, and interns cut down by an industrial wizard. The Cooperative to exploit! You won’t need He calls out! They wake up, and he In a galaxy, far, far away— a union, because, He, will and his friends, the little people— Manifesto I listen to all your wants. free a deluge that puts out the fires (The little farm boy, after his uncle of dark creation!) By John Paul Wright and aunt, were killed by the empire, He shares a vision and to be & Me, my, mine— is pulled into a fight—against good employed? those who the wheel violence erupts and evil. He is good at deer hunting suffer, just didn’t of history— a chain link fence and loves to fish. He is afraid of make the grade!) keeps turning— the markets are free! a freedom of speech becoming his father, and falls into Innovations of profit! zone. the old-time religion. One day, “Would you LIKE A little competition, to play a game?” Those people! after hand to hand combat, he wakes won’t hurt you, That man! up, under the care of the rebellion, “Wouldn’t you prefer a good game of and come to the dark side— chess?” That woman! finds his body, becoming more and “use your anger!” Not! more “NO! Joshua!” No! like the machine he is fighting.) Or, just sit down “let’s play GLOBAL TRADE Ready, Aim … Fire. shut up and listen ... AND SUPPLY CHAIN” So, what was his fear? “Just Sayin’ !!!” 10 print “two plus two equals five” What are you afraid of? A troll speaks— Get on board, 20 print “four legs good, two legs A news speak— That is how Big Brother will get you! little children, bad” ROTFL He already owns your farm. 30 Goto 10 (Once there were two young men, LOL He is making your music who just liked to party— SMH & branding your culture— (Unless they are “green” and were drug into middle earth, have wings—are “sustainable” forgive them “Father” they know his industry, his vision not— and mission … their best buddy, lost. So naturally, and have branded “care” as a product.) and on and on we go. Mom and Pop are dead! they went to find him. They found The little town square? a forest, for the trees. An old man The Farmer, wakes from his sleeping In 1948 a man thought The family values and LOVE in the woods, who had become set and finds his farm, town and way backwards and came up of life, in the hands of a few. THY NEIGHBOR? in his ways, but, had the power! with 1984. Screens would Wal-Mart, and the Empire— So, He had many friends, who, could be placed in party homes. help dressed in clothing made from Will you join his team? Big Brother, was born. but, they were so slow at acting. a silk road of rubber, diesel and …. The thought police! It’s a labor of LOVE! The youth, tricking the elder, took him to the point of production. “that’s not politically correct!” is HATE … “Would you like to play “racist” FREEDOM IS SLAVERY! & on a side note, He, and his friends, an underground spiritual game?” “scab” WAR, IS PEACE! the old man, the big trees, had lost How about … “sissy” their Just tell it LIKE it is … not to mention … femininity, their wives had left them COLONIAL MENTALITY? & IT IS WHAT IT IS! because they were? but, when HE (He has a 401k for you … was taken to the river, led like a horse 40 End! A fear based pathology. A 40-hour work week. to water … found his friends, Meanwhile … SUBSCRIBE TO INDUSTRIAL WORKER! Get a one-year subscription (that’s 4 issues) for: 1______U.S. IWW members: $16 1______U.S. regular subscribers: $20 1______ALL international subscribers: $28 One-year bundle subscription (5 copies/issue, 20 total) for: 1______U.S. bundles: $60 1______International bundles: $80 (please check off which option you would like) Your mailing address: ______Name Street/P.O. Box City/State/Province Postal Code Country Send this form & a check or money order to: Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 or subscribe online: http://store.iww.org/industrial-worker.html. Questions? Email [email protected]
15 Marx on the silver screen Bruno Leipold, March 2, 2017, Jacobin A small group of peasants warily collect wood in the forest. The poverty and desperation is clear in their faces. A voiceover alerts us that the law has turned this simple act of survival into an illegal act of wood theft. The peasants, sensing a disturbance, look around nervously. Riders ominously appear in the distance. The voiceover, quoting Montesquieu, tells us that there are two types of corrup- tion: one where the people do not follow the law and the other where the law cor- rupts the people. The riders charge at the peasants and brutally cut them down. We might expect a film about Karl Marx to open with exploited factory work- ers toiling in nineteenth century industrial misery. That Raoul Peck’s new feature film, The Young Karl Marx, instead decides to lead with a more bucolic scene is a fit- ting biographical touch. One of Marx’s first forays into journalism (from which the voiceover is taken) was an investiga- August Diehl (right) as Karl Marx meets Friedrich Engels, played by Stefan Konarske, in Raoul tion into wood theft in the Rhineland, an Peck’s The Young Karl Marx experience that put the philosophy gradu- ate in the “embarrassing position”—he phalen, he throws himself into the city’s gels’s battles with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, later recalled—“of having to discuss what is socialist milieu. Wilhelm Weitling, and Karl Grün are all known as material interests.” He soon encounters Friedrich Engels, given extensive screen time. That attention to historical detail char- and in one of the film’s strongest sequenc- On my first viewing of the film, acterizes the film as a whole, and testifies es, we see how the two men overcome the focus on these disputes seemed eso- to the clearly loving amount of research their initial hostility and set out onto the teric, and the characters’ portrayal a little that went into making it. The result is an streets of Paris to celebrate their new- cartoonish. But this impression softened entertaining and surprisingly funny por- found comradeship. The film then follows the second time I watched the movie, as trait of the young Marx. A friend, who had their joint struggle against various other both audiences seemed to have followed read Marx but knew little of his life and contemporary socialist leaders, culminat- the political disagreements without much character, described watching the film as a ing in their collaboration on the Communist confusion and appreciated the humorous similar experience to seeing your favorite Manifesto. interactions. ... band perform live for the first time. The Young Karl Marx is one of less The Young Karl Marx is likely to enter- The film charts Marx’s life from 1843 than a handful of screen adaptations about tain left-wing moviegoers across the globe. to 1848, as a young man in his mid to Marx (as opposed to the vast and ever- It was enthusiastically received by the late twenties. After the Prussian censors increasing supply of documentaries and audience at its premiere last month at the shut down his Cologne newspaper, Marx written biographies about the Old Man). Berlin International Film Festival (which eagerly embraces the opportunity to move This is surprising because, in comparison included most of the leadership of Die to Paris to start a new journalistic venture. to some great historical thinkers, Marx Linke, the German Left Party). Less politi- There, with his new wife Jenny von West- actually lived a pretty interesting life. He cized audiences are likely to be impressed participated in a revolution, had three of by Marx’s humor, which might help dispel his newspapers shut down, and was forc- the image of a dour old man with a beard. ibly exiled four times. His relationship The film will also, I imagine, play a useful with Jenny, while marred by the premature educational role in the future as a lively ac- death of four of their seven children and companiment to courses on Marx. Marx’s (possible) unfaithfulness, was also a In short, committed socialists and av- genuine love story. Any screenwriter would erage moviegoers alike have reason to look seem to have plenty of material. Yet there forward to the film’s worldwide release. are, to my knowledge, just three feature- Peck clearly wanted to bring Marx’s story length film adaptations of Marx’s life. ... to a wider audience, and with The Young One of the more surprising elements Karl Marx, he’s succeeded. IW of The Young Karl Marx is the extent to Bruno Leipold is writing a PhD in political which it dives into the complicated world theory on Karl Marx and republicanism. of early communist politics. Marx and En-
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 16 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 The big difference between organizing and mobilizing: How unions can win in the future A discussion on what ails the labor move- paign has been a colossal disaster. It’s an it’s so fun to do an organizing conversa- ment and why we need to stop ignoring evolution in some ways of taking agency tion with just a worker on the door. You the rank-and-file follows. away from workers at every level inside the can pull up to a door, see a conservative . labor movement. The key strategic pivot bumper sticker or something else, and start we have to make is having a ton of faith making assumptions. But then you go in in the capacities of ordinary rank-and-file there, and through the process of a good, workers and in the ordinary intelligence of long, face-to-face conversation, almost workers. We have to prioritize our strategy every time, the individual comes out pissed on teaching, skilling up, and training tens off at their boss, understands that their of thousands of workers how to fight. boss is connected to a bigger system, and Organizing isn’t rocket science, but it is a starts for the first time to think, “I can do serious skill and a craft. We have to build something about this if we act collectively.” an army of people in the field who can The main thing is that we have to get actually contend with capital on the local people to understand collective action. level. Not talking to workers and having a That’s the biggest challenge. strategy that fundamentally avoided work- MR: This makes me think of Fight for 15, ers for several decades is what we need to which is doing this in some ways, taking change and what we can change. people and connecting them to something MR: How do we, as a labor movement and broader. In other ways, however, it seems a Left, find a language that really speaks to to fall more on the side of what you call people again and relates to them? mobilizing. We’re seeing pushing of the JM: First, we need to worry less about how core issue of minimum-wage increases but we talk and worry more about listening. less actual organizing or larger collective We stopped listening to workers and that’s structures coming out of it. Is there tension part of disregarding the intelligence of between these goals? How do these new ordinary people. movements relate to what you consider organizing? We had this arrogant leadership team that JM: came into the US labor movement after The entire focus of my next book is an analysis, using what I’m calling mobiliz- Read the entire dicussion at http://www. 1995. They just thought, “We’re smarter alternet.org/labor/how-unions-can-win-future. than workers, smarter than everyone.” ing models versus organizing models. The Fight for 15 stuff is very much a mobiliz- Michal Rozworski: You’ve argued that The steps to a good organizing conversa- ing model. organized labor today doesn’t face an exter- tion, to a one-on-one, are a framework to how we can be talking collectively, as well. The very first real $15 campaign, was the nal crisis of circumstances, but a crisis of one at Sea-Tac Airport. It was worker-led, strategy. If we have a crisis of strategy, what There, it’s 70–30: 70 percent listening and 30 percent talking. Even the 30 percent there’s unionization coming out of it, and are we missing? What strategies will work they won $15 now. today? talking is really agitational; it’s a series of specific questions that allow people to be- They didn’t get a phased-in model that’s Jane McAlevey: It’s an important ques- gin to self-analyze the crisis in their life. very complicated, where the minimum tion, and I should clarify a little bit. There The framework of the conversation is so wage becomes $15 in 2022, when it’s no are external factors; I don’t want to dismiss longer $15 because it isn’t indexed. We that. The changing nature of capitalism has important. People have to engage in self- discovery through face-to-face conversa- should be looking more closely at that made things very difficult, so have trade original campaign rather than the mostly agreements and globalization. tion. Organizing tools and an organizing conversation are literally about a process of publicity, social media campaign we have There has been this recognition in the last self-discovery. People begin to systematize now. twenty years or so, in the USA in particu- and analyze what’s going wrong in their MR: In order to build community solidar- lar, that we have a crisis. The conditions life. ity, we need to take on the resentment— are very difficult; the employer offensive is cynically manufactured, but still very very difficult. The problem is that the way MR: So it is people’s own experience, mov- ing toward something broader, that can real—between private- and public-sector the US labor movement took the decision workers. How do we fight this? to look for additional leverage was to walk then bring them out together. JM: away from workers in the workplace and JM: Absolutely. People have to come to My line is: there’s just the economy. hire people to think strategically in the their own conclusion that there is some- Organizing is about having hard conversa- labor movement. To me, this summed it thing deeply wrong with the political tions. It is fundamentally about having all up. The question wasn’t: Do you know economy system that we have. hard conversations with people and not how to talk to a worker? running away from hard issues. You can’t Our assumptions about who’s going to win a union campaign in the US environ- The development of the corporate cam- think what are so often wrong. That’s why ment if you don’t do that. IW
17 What about unwaged labor? By Kristin K. and Jessica Smith and figure out what the issues are. They’re tion of craftivism—for example, to create We met each other before either one not hard to find! Lack of guaranteed pay scarves and hats for homeless or in-need of us had kids and recently reconnected. makes us vulnerable. And cuts to Welfare, individuals, and to make sleeping mats out It turns out we’re both employed but Social Security, maternity care, and health of plastic grocery bags. She also sees a lot unwaged: “stay-at-home” parents. And care sometimes take away our only source of potential within the GDC to find room we both had a period of absence from the of income. Lack of respect. Lack of recog- for other traditional women’s work. IWW after we had kids—Kristin because nition that what we do is work. May Day is a good a day as any for the branch abruptly changed meeting Educate means to find out more the IWW as a whole to start thinking se- spaces from a child-friendly community about struggles that other people have riously about unpaid laborers and how we center to a cramped space, and Jessica won. fit in with the union. Groups like Moms partly because arranging childcare was a Inoculate means to warn each other Rising and Global Women’s Strike are struggle. ahead of time about ways the boss might already calling for action, so the energy So Kristin asked Jessica to share retaliate. Well, that points to one of the is there—and the IWW should be at the her thoughts as an unwaged household biggest problems we have with making forefront. IW laborer: the IWW organizing model work for us. “Does the IWW feel relevant to the Who is our boss, anyway? Is it everybody More to Explore: kind of work you do?” who gives us money—our partners, or the The IWW Industrial Union 600: http://iww.org/ Jessica’s answer: government? Or is there no boss? But if unions/dept600 there’s no boss, how’d we end up getting so The IWW Preamble: https://iww.org/culture/of- “Honestly, the short answer is it ficial/preamble.shtml doesn’t. I rejoined because I want to help overworked? Organize means to bring in and train Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity with others’ efforts, and because I believe Writings & Speeches 1878–1937, ed. Ahrens, the IWW does good work, but if I didn’t up other people in our industry. And finally, Unionize means bringing Gale, available from A.K. Press already have a history with the union, I Global Women’s Strike: http://www.globalwom- am not sure I would see a place for myself people into a union where we back each other up, show solidarity, and build power. enstrike.net/ in it.” Moms Rising: https://www.momsrising.org/ Kristin’s answer was similar: We don’t have all the answers, or even “I’ve been to a lot of Organizer Train- most of them, but we ing 101s and felt alienated when all the both think this discus- roleplays and situations apply only in sion is worth having. workplaces with more than one worker. So Where to go from here? I feel like I’m supporting other people but Kristin has been ignoring all my own issues.” thinking about the But we felt there was room for rel- “Wages for Housework” evance, remembering that there was an concept but realizes Industrial Union for domestic workers, the downside would which could include stay-at-home parents/ be ending up with a partners. The work of unpaid caregivers boss—someone with the falls roughly under Department 600, Pub- power to take away our lic Service, and more specifically, Industrial income, who thought Union 680: “All workers engaged in per- they could tell us how forming services in the home.” That would to do our job. So maybe be us. Stay-at-home parents, parents who it would be better to work for a wage and then come home to follow the guidance care for the kids, and people who care for of the Preamble to the aging parents or disabled loved ones. IWW Constitution and It turns out that this issue has been abolish the whole damn alive in the IWW since the very begin- wage system altogether. ning, decades before the 1970s feminist She’s encouraged by movement. Lucìa Eldine Gonzalèz Par- early efforts of people to sons, one of the founding members of the set up “gift economies.” IWW, organized women around issues like Jessica is thinking shorter hours, equal pay for equal work, about organizing stay- and wages for housework. at-home parents, and And there are parts of the Organizer non-parents who take on Training that really do apply to us. The other caregiving roles, general idea is that in order to get any in a way that can also real power, workers have to go through be relevant within the AEIOU: Agitate, Educate, Inoculate, IWW. One of the things she’s thought about is Organize, and Unionize. Early A-E-I-O-U indoctrination for Wobbly baby Agitate means to talk with each other a more practical applica-
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 18 Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 Berta Cáceres, Elvia Alvarado, and the Honduran struggle By Raymond S. Solomon side of the people, were Unknown to most Yankees, for much killed. In the words of our history, the United States has had an of Howard Zinn, imperial relationship, to varying degrees, four nations were left with many Latin American countries. This devastated: Guatemala, has been manifested in different ways, Honduras, El Salvador, including numerous direct military inter- and Nicaragua. ventions in Latin American countries. The A number of years U.S. operates the School of the Americas, ago I read Don’t Be which trains Latin American militaries, Afraid Gringo: A Hon- which then keep dictatorships in power. duran Woman Speaks American manipulation of Latin Her Mind: The Story of American governments includes maneu- Elvia Alvarado, by Elvia vering the overthrow of the Guatemalan Alvarado. As an im- moderately leftist government in 1954, in poverished Honduran A memorial mural dedicated to Berta Cáceres order to protect the holdings of the United peasant herself, orga- Honduras. Fruit Company; the Platt Amendment to nizer Alvarado had to make changes in her The duly elected President of Hon- the treaty ending the Spanish-American own life, including stopping the use of foul duras, Manuel Zelaya, assumed office on War of 1898, allowing the United States language. She had justifiable complaints January 27, 2006. According to a report by to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs; U.S. against men who would leave their families Democracy Now, on June 28, 2009, Zelaya military support for Cuban military dicta- and start up another family somewhere was taken by armed and masked military tor Fulgencio Batista; and surreptitious else. She came to realize that the “average men from his house, and after a stopover assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. gringo,” including those on the military at a U.S. military base in Honduras, they The U.S. has exerted control over Cen- bases in Honduras, does not understand took him to Costa Rica. One of the lead- tral and South American countries, placing the exploitive relationship of the United ing Hondurans to consistently protest or supporting “friendly” governments. The States to Central American countries. the ensuing coup government was envi- attitude towards Rafael Trujillo, dictator She gained hope by learning there were a ronmental and Central American Indian of the Dominican Republic, was expressed significant number of North Americans activist Berta Cáceres. by an American Congressman who said, on the peasants’ side, and many Catholic On March 3, 2016, Berta Cáceres was “He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our priests supported the peasants’ struggle. assassinated. In the year since her murder, son-of-a-bitch.” In 1965, American inter- It was through the Catholic Church that there have been popular demonstrations, vention in the Dominican Republic’s mini Alvarado became a human rights activ- with demonstrators saying in Spanish, civil war saw U.S. Marines fighting on the ist. And, explaining the title of Alvarado’s Berta Cáceres was not destroyed but has side of the coup government, which was book, she told North Americans not to be multiplied. In the United States, during fighting against the people loyal to Juan afraid of conducting our own struggle, say- the recent election campaign, there were Bash, the Dominican Republic’s mildly ing, “Don’t be afraid Gringo,” because they demonstrations aimed at events where leftist, democratically elected reformer. in Honduras were right behind us. President Bill Clinton was campaigning, Most blatant was the American role in the The current Honduran situation and blaming Hillary Clinton for the Honduran overthrow of the democratically elected the life work and murder of Berta Cáceres situation. government of Salvador Allende, with the (March 4, 1972–March 3, 2016) are not New evidence has come to light indi- resulting murders of thousands of people well known in the U.S. Applying Alvara- cating that those who assassinated Berta in 1973. do’s story as background, we can under- Cáceres may have had U.S. connections. If In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan stand why the Honduran coup spurred this were true, it would be reminiscent of conducted a policy in Central America Cáceres’ activism, what led to her murder, what happened in the coup in Chile where aimed at overthrowing a moderate left- and why the spirit of Berta Cáceres lives Charles Horman, Wobbly Frank Teruggi, ist government in Nicaragua and keep- on. and two others were murdered with the ing a military dictatorship in power in El Berta Isabel Cáceres was a Honduran complicity of United States officials. This Salvador, which was resisting a rebellion. dissident. She was active on environmental was dramatized in the movie Missing, One of the key bases of operation for the issues and for indigenous people, especially which considered the murder of Charles U.S. was Honduras, on which the United her own Lenca Indian people. Cáceres Horman. These murders stain the soul of States has a network of military bases. In won the Goldman Environmental Award. the American people. the course of these wars the United States Cáceres attacked the role U.S. Secretary of Manuel Zelaya returned to Honduras supported Latin American death squads. State Hillary Clinton played in preventing on May 30, 2011, but he told CNN that he Often Catholic Clergy, who were on the the restoration of meaningful democracy in doesn’t intend to run for office again. IW
19 International news roundup By John Kalwaic sabotaged and destroyed a production line conflict and our business relationship with Women in Ireland strike in a Chinese-owned Hennes & Mauritz this factory is on hold at the moment,” against abortion ban for (H&M) garment factory in late February, though they did not elaborate. International Women’s as part of a strike for safer working condi- Myanmar has opened up to foreign Day tions, a better system for reviewing perfor- business after decades of isolation, but As people all over the world, from mance, healthcare coverage, and reinstate- there is now demand on the government Mexico to Poland to the United States, ment of their union’s leader. The workers for labor reform. In March, workers won celebrated International Women’s Day on won their dispute, which dates back to late their strike; Paing Oo was reinstated and March 8, Irish activists held a nationwide February, on March 11. the workers won their demand to be paid strike. The factory, owned by Hangzhou the monthly minimum wage of $63. For women in Ireland, the day took Hundred-Tex Garment (Myanmar) on a special meaning, as they came out in Company, supplies clothes for H&M, a Wildcat strike and pro- force to strike against that country’s near- Swedish clothing and fashion company test in Bulgaria total ban on abortion. The abortion ban that sell clothes to stores all over the world. In March, retail workers across Bulgaria has been in effect since the founding of the The factory in Yangon’s commercial hub is went on wildcat strikes against Piccadilly, Irish Republic, which is strongly influ- one of H&M’s 40 suppliers in Myanmar. one of Bulgaria’s largest supermarket chains, enced by Roman Catholicism. Divorce The workers targeted the factory in the supported by the anarcho-syndicalist Autono- and same-sex marriage, however, have been commercial hub of Yangon, damaging mous Workers Union, or ARS. The workers legal since a popular vote in 2015. Cur- equipment, buildings, and vehicles to struck because they have not been paid for rently, women must travel to Northern highlight the lack of safety measures and months, and efforts to speak to manage- protection for workers in the textile ment have been thwarted by private security Ireland for an abortion. The cost of travel- at the company’s Sofia ing to another country is prohibitive for headquarters. Piccadilly, many women. owned by Nikolay Around 4,500 women and support- Lazarov, is registered in ers marched against the abortion ban in Luxembourg. the capital Dublin. Other marches took The workers went place around Ireland. Pro-choice strikers in to Piccadilly’s head- Poland in 2016 inspired the Irish women’s quarters in the capital one-day strike for abortion choice, shut- city of Sofia, where they ting down work and school. Poland’s strike attempted to occupy against stricter anti-abortion measures be- the headquarters but ing enacted successfully defeated them. were blocked by private security. In Varna, strik- Construction workers ers first blocked access riot in Vietnam Striking Burmese workers meet in their factory On February 28, hundreds of con- to the supermarket struction workers rioted at the Yen Phong industry. and then went to Investbank, which holds Viglacera industrial park. Korean Samsung The dispute dates back to a strike in late Piccadilly’s assets. The unpaid workers Display Company owns the park in the January when union leader That Paing Oo demanded that Ivestbank unlock the pay- Bác Ninh Province of Vietnam, not far was fired for taking leave without permis- ments to the workers. Some of the work- from the capital of Hanoi. sion. He had led a protest in December ers rushed the bank while others stayed The construction workers reacted 2016, to force Hangzhou Hundred-Tex outside and picketed. after a South Korean security guard at the to pay $52,536 in overtime owed to 570 Also in March, ARS assisted former Samsung plant slammed a Vietnamese workers, which the company paid at the employees of Max Telecom, Bulgaria’s construction worker to the ground. Other end of December. On February 9, female fourth-biggest mobile operator, with issues Vietnamese construction workers defended garment workers at the Hangzhou Hun- of unpaid wages. Max Telecom owes salary their fellow worker, and a fight and riot dred-Tex Garment Company attacked a payments to 150 people. Workers gathered broke out. Vietnamese government police Chinese manager, who struggled to escape. in the company headquarters and chanted arrived, and the crowd dispersed. In late February hundreds of workers “Salaries, now!” Protestors read out their de- Samsung is one of the largest foreign stormed the factory and damaged facilities mands, and then stormed the building after employers in Vietnam. Many foreign causing an estimated $75,000 to repair, learning that management had left. One of companies set up their production lines including textile machinery, computers, the angry workers who participated in the in Vietnam because of the availability of and security cameras. In addition, Chinese protest commented, “Dickheads from man- cheap labor. managers were beaten, robbed, and trapped agement had to flee and leave the offices in the building by the angry workers. The empty, so we put our messages on them and Workers strike in Bur- Chinese embassy in Myanmar labeled the on the locked doors of the premises.” The ma/Myanmar after dam- actions by workers as “an attack” and asked protesters moved on to block vehicle access aging Chinese factory that those responsible be held accountable. to Sofia Airport, promising that unless out- In the country known as Burma but Representatives from H&M stated, “H&M standing wages were paid, their next action officially called Myanmar, garment workers group is deeply concerned about the recent would not be “as ‘symbolic.’” IW
Industrial Worker • Spring 2017 Industrial Worker PO Box 180195 Periodicals Postage Chicago, IL 60618 USA PAID ISSN 0019-8870 Chicago, IL ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Application for IWW Membership Preamble to the IWW Answers to questions with asterisks * are required. I affirm that I am a worker and not an employer:* ___ Yes Constitution I agree to abide by the IWW Constitution and regulations of this The working class and the employing class have nothing in com- organization:* ___ Yes mon. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found I agree to study the IWW’s principles and make myself acquainted with its among millions of the working people, and the few, who make up purpose:* ___ Yes the employing class, have all the good things of life. First Name:* ______Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the work- ers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of Last Name:* ______production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Current Mailing Address:* ______Earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into City or Town:* ______fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with State or Province:* ______the ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs that allows one set of workers to be pitted Postal Code:* ______Country:* ______against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the Phone Number:* ______employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the work- Can you receive text messages at this number?* ___ Yes ___ No ing class has interests in common with their employers. Email Address:* ______These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its Employer: ______members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease Job Description:* ______work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Industrial Union:* ______I have been an IWW member in the past:* ___ Yes ___ No Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair Would you like information about the IWW’s General Defense Committee?* day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary ___ Yes ___ No watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.” Would you like to subscribe to the IWW’s members-only email list It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with [email protected]?*___ Yes ___ No capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for Would you like to subscribe to the IWW’s public alerts email list everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production [email protected]?* ___ Yes ___ No when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industri- Please cut out and mail this form to: Industrial Workers of the World General Headquarters ally we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell PO Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618, USA of the old.